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After last week’s win against the Saints, 49ers defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said he’d placed a picture of Justin Smith on the cover of the defensive notebook during training camp.

Along with Smith’s picture was “0-1,” the Pro Bowl defensive tackle’s postseason record during his 11-year career. On Saturday, Fangio said the message was simple. They wanted to get Smith his first playoff win this season.

Today, Fangio, rather eloquently, explained the rest of the message behind the cover.

At the start of training camp, before the team signed cornerback Carlos Rogers, safety Madieu Williams and linebacker Tavares Gooden, Smith was the only player on San Francisco’s defense with playoff experience.

Viewing that as an obvious sign that the franchise’s glory days were long gone, Fangio talked about restoring the tradition to a once-proud franchise.

“There was a lot of talk about the great history and the tradition of the 49ers,” Fangio said. “But my message to them was that there had been great history, but the tradition was lost. You can’t go (eight) years without a winning season and think you have tradition. We’ve restored that. And along the way we’ve gotten (Smith) his first playoff victory and we’re going to do everything we can to get him another one.”